posted at 3:21 pm on February 6, 2013 by Mary Katharine Ham

Every time government leaders come back to taxpayers for more money, they are saying to you, “As we see it, this government is running like a perfectly well-oiled machine, and there is nowhere possible we could imagine extracting this money except from you.”

In Massachusetts, the juxtaposition of Gov. Deval Patrick’s requests for a grab bag of tax and fee hikes with last week’s revelation of millions in state and federal welfare waste and fraud has Massachusetts residents noticing just how little respect Patrick has for their wallets. I would have thought this realization came with the address, but it’s healthy nonetheless.

The state’s embattled welfare chief was forced to step down yesterday in the wake of a shocking internal report that found that a staggering 47,000 families receiving taxpayer-funded benefits are unaccounted for — and nearly $30 million in food stamp money went to recipients who were not eligible.

The shocking report, released to the Herald last night, found that the Department of Transitional Assistance has lost track of 47,087 households on welfare — or one out of 10 of the total 478,000 who received DTA mailings.

The welfare department also admitted that it overpaid federal food stamp recipients by a whopping $27.8 million since 2010.

A state watchdog agency’s study of information submitted to the state by welfare recipients found errors and eligibility concerns with an average annual cost to taxpayers of about $25 million per year.

According to Inspector General Glenn Cunha’s report, dated on Wednesday and posted on his website but not widely released, investigators discovered potential eligibility concerns that could result in the termination of benefits in about 9 percent of the households receiving benefits under the program known as Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children and designed to provide assistance to the poorest residents of Massachusetts.

In mid-January state Auditor Suzanne M. Bump said examiners with the office’s Bureau of Special Investigations found evidence of $1,334,019 in fraudulently obtained public assistance benefits and services.

Bump said examiners completed 1,769 investigations in the first quarter of fiscal 2013 (July through September), identifying 246 people defrauding the state out of food stamps, health care benefits, public housing or cash assistanc

Taxpayers who hear about this blatant fraud and abuse of the money the state takes from them and wonder why the hell it’s coming to them for more money are not heartless; they are sensible. The people who allow money taken from taxpayers to help low-income families to be squandered are the heartless ones. They are the ones who are failing their fellow citizens, both those who give assistance and those who need it. If a private company were engaging in a similar level of abuse of its customers and waste of their money and trust, liberals would rightly decry that company’s betrayal. But their standards are inexplicably different for the government, which is easily less efficient and more abusive than any local cable company, and has the unique ability to compel its “customers” with police force and the threat of incarceration.

Governor Deval Patrick launched a public campaign Monday to win support for raising taxes to repair and reinvigorate the state’s beleaguered transportation system, seeking ­Beacon Hill approval for $1.02 billion a year in new or higher taxes and fees dedicated to transportation.

In a sign of a shifting political landscape, legislative leaders ­acknowledged that more money is needed to shore up the state’s transportation system and that they are open to discussing tax increases, a nonstarter in previous efforts to ­address the long-simmering transportation funding crisis.

As in Maryland and D.C., this new tax money is for roads and infrastructure. Who could object to that? Well, there are the people who notice the state government has been neglecting that core responsibility only to use it again and again as its rationalization to take more money from them. There are apparently many Bay State residents, including constituents of Democrats, who have not gotten the memo about the “shifting political landscape.”

“Folks are really ticked off,” said state Rep. James R. Miceli (D-Wilmington). “I haven’t seen it like this since 1990. … There’s no support out there whatsoever in my district. They’re not going to bite the bullet.”…

“People are shell-shocked,” said state Rep. Theodore C. Speliotis (D-Danvers). “It’s folks who when they read the Herald about an abuse at the DTA (Department of Transitional Assistance), about EBT cards, they put that together and it really makes people very angry and frustrated. The middle class has always felt they bear the brunt of the burden.”…

“Dead on arrival,” Peterson said. “There is not one person I’ve heard from that’s in favor of this. Not one.”

Patrick and his allies will say the $25 million in wasted annual state money and the $30 million in federal money is a drop in the bucket he must fill to meet the state’s needs, so it’s silly to argue that correcting waste and fraud can fix every fiscal problem. Yes, it is less than he says he needs, but there’s a hole in the bucket, dear Deval, and you must fix it, dear Deval, dear Deval, fix it. Tens of millions of dollars is not a drop in the bucket to normal people who will likely never see a tenth of that amount in their lives.

Watching government officials downplay lost $25 millions while tsk-tsking them to cough up another $1.02 billion has a way of rubbing people the wrong way. Oh, and it cost taxpayers another bundle in overtime pay for DTA employees charged with cleaning up the million-dollar mess it had made.

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I have zero faith in the Massachusetts electorate… If they elect a communist like Elizabeth Warren to the Senate then they would not give a damn about their taxes going up… I hope that they prove me wrong…

In Massachusetts, the juxtaposition of Gov. Deval Patrick’s requests for a grab bag of tax and fee hikes with last week’s revelation of millions in state and federal welfare waste and fraud has Massachusetts residents noticing just how little respect Patrick has for their wallets.

A small glimmer of hope in a state where “low information voters” sent a blue-eyed blonde fake Indian to represent them in the U.S. Senate.

I can’t wait until the people of the US finally get the clue that their SSA ‘accounts’ have no money in them because the government can’t keep their money year to year and must spend it as it comes in. Some IOU vouchers in the way of bonds, yeah, but those are getting cashed out as we speak since the program is now in the red.

Ditto the M&Ms.

Yes, the greatest fraud is telling people that they have all that lovely cash awaiting them for some golden day, and that its all gone.

If you think a bit of a problem with a few million in MA is bad, just wait until its revealed just what a Ponzi Scheme the federal entitlements are.

Whine, whine, whine, whine… Don’t you people ever give it a rest? No wonder FOX news is plunging in the ratings. Who wants to watch a bunch of whiny crybabies?

lostmotherland on February 6, 2013 at 3:38 PM

Low IQ communist scum and slave of the State… We are only exposing the deadly danger of communism known as a liberalism… It is basically stealing the producers money and give it to the parasites who vote for the communists… and of course working hard on taking our freedoms away… Now go and f*** yourself…

The state’s embattled welfare chief was forced to step down yesterday in the wake of a shocking internal report that found that a staggering 47,000 families receiving taxpayer-funded benefits are unaccounted for — and nearly $30 million in food stamp money went to recipients who were not eligible.

The election is over. The rat-eared wonder won. What possible difference could this fraud make at this point?

It’s the left’s mantra now that their guy got another four years to destroy the nation.

Pshaw! MD will never be the California of the East coast. MA, NY, and NJ are the big dogs in that battle. MD will be the Oregon or Washington state of the East coast. Commie-lite for lack of the kind of budgets and power those other states enjoy.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Potomac (other than DC itself) sanity is in greater evidence.

Left MA for NH 8 years ago. Sadly the moonbats have followed and are voting blue. Just a matter of time before NH voters vote for “more free stuff” (sic).

philw1776 on February 6, 2013 at 3:35 PM

Ain’t it the truth?

I live in Mass (sigh…) and vacation when I can in New Hampshire. Every year it gets more and more like Vermont as the Massholes (yup, that’s what they call us) migrate northwards to escape what they’ve created in Massachusetts, only to bring their liberal lunacy with them…

I don’t think the Old Man in the Mountain crumbled; I’m convinced he jumped when he saw what was happening to his beloved Granite State.

I’m glad you are looking into Bacon Hill, home of the most corrupt gov’t in the country.

Deval Patrick is Agenda 21. If you don’t like this phrase, let’s just say he works for the UN.

Check out his sustainable development principles.

He wants an extra billion a year to build trains all over the place. So he can lower VMT (vehicle miles traveled).

He wants to penalize owners of V8 engines.

His latest tax proposal is to decrease the sales tax (they always tell us illegals pay taxes, so lets lower that burden) while increasing the state income tax. Aks sticking it to the rich. He is the left wing robin hood.

I could go on and on with example after example. Just keep digging into the most corrupt gov’t in the country.

Patrick and his allies will say the $25 million in wasted annual state money and the $30 million in federal money is a drop in the bucket he must fill to meet the state’s needs, so it’s silly to argue that correcting waste and fraud can fix every fiscal problem.

LOL. Yes, no doubt Massachusetts voters will believe that the incompetency and corruption in the Patrick administration is limited to just the one department. Every other part of his government is a model of efficiency and integrity, right Deval?

I can’t wait until the people of the US finally get the clue that their SSA ‘accounts’ have no money in them because the government can’t keep their money year to year and must spend it as it comes in. Some IOU vouchers in the way of bonds, yeah, but those are getting cashed out as we speak since the program is now in the red.

ajacksonian on February 6, 2013 at 3:51 PM

A compelling argument for the purchase of the 2 billion rounds of .40 caliber JHP rounds that DHS has purchased.

Listen, Northeasteners; I tell you what I told the Californians that are stampeding toward Texas for a sane tax load. if you come down here, LEAVE YOUR LEFTIST IDEAS OF TAXATION AND GOVERNANCE IN THE WASTE CANS AT THE BORDER! We have our OWN ideas- that seem to work pretty well- and we are heavily armed. :)

I’m a citizen of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a lifelong Republican. I had some hope back when Brown won the special election, and I’ve volunteered for him, Charlie Baker (GOP candidate for Gov) and Sean Bielat. After this news, you know what the only thing keeping me in the state is?

The deposit my fiancee and I put down on our wedding for next year. Given that we both work for multinational corporations, we’re really not interested in staying around in MA. Maybe we’ll just cross the border to New Hampshire, maybe we’ll bite the bullet and move all the way down to Texas (corporate HQ for me is down there). But no way in hell do we want to put up with the bullshit coming out of Beacon Hill anymore.

Once again I feel that I have to defend my state. I live in Southeastern Mass. On Beacon Hill my representative is Susan Gifford-Williams (GOP), who ran unopposed last fall. In my small town Brown got 60% to 40% for the fake indian. Romney got 52%.

I’ve only voted for a D once (Senator Kennedys’ final election). I voted for him because his opponent refused to debate him, and compared to our Junior Senator, Kennedy actually worked and tried to get things done for this state. Even though I disagreed with most of those things.

I live in a sea of red but we cannot win a statewide election. Why? Because of the union democrat massive corruption machine. In order to have an honest election here, it would require hundreds of GOP observers in every precinct in every city. Go ahead and look at the Brown-Warren election results. She won because the top 5 cities newtered the rest of the state, courtesy of election fraud.

But I will never leave this state again, I can assure you that. I lived in Los Angeles for over a decade, couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Things might be bad here politically, but Southern Cal is a cesspool of all that is wrong with this country.

So spare me the BS that everybody in this state are moonbat leftists. Keep politics in perspective, I don’t judge my friends by their politics. My family and friends are full of leftists and we get along fine as long as we leave politics out of it.

This state and the city of Boston are the best I’ve seen, the people are great even if half of them are left wingers. And I’ve traveled all over the country and all over Europe so I have lots to compare Boston to. The biggest US cesspools I’ve been to are LA, NY, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philly, and Atlanta.

Boston is great, just accept that we cant beat the union democrat corruption machine.

Yet business and wealthy people love Massachusetts. What is it with the wealthy and business that draws them to states with commie governments? I’d really like to know so I can try and make some money off it.

You’re right. I’m clearly an Obama supporter. My consistent support of Republican candidates, including Governor Perry, must be all some sort of ruse so that when I move to a state where Republicans have a chance, they’ll allow me into their inner circle. You’ve caught onto my plan.

Or, perhaps I should have just left my fiancee behind and high tailed it out of here when the state became too inhospitable for Republicans. Which would’ve been sometime shortly after I was conceived.